From everything I've seen, it looks like OnLocation is being left out of PP CS6 in favor of a new program, Prelude. The thing I like most about OnLocation is having the various scopes (vectorscope, histogram, monitor, etc) that I can use to dial in my camera settings before shooting. It doesn't look like Prelude is going to include any of those, so will OnLocation be available separately after CS6 is released? I know it wasn't available as a separate program with PP CS5.5, so this has me worried.

Simple answer, no. OnLocation will not be available because it has to be bought with Premiere Pro,and you'll only be able to buy Premiere Pro CS6 if you buy directly from Adobe once it launches next Monday.

But since buying CS5.5 now will get you CS6 for free when it comes out, you can choose to do so (right now) and end up having both CS5.5 and CS6 (you can continue to use CS5.5 applications after upgrading to CS6).

OnLocation may not be included with the new suite, but most folks use that program on a Laptop so they can take it with them on location (hence the name), and have the rest of the suite installed on the desktop back at the office.

There's no reason you can't just leave your current version installed on that Laptop and continue using it.

I'm not sure what you mean by "CS6" in this context--that's basically a version number, not a product. Anyway, I do not know of any product in Production Premium CS6 that has scopes for monitoring a live camera signal.

I believe the decision by Adobe to stop supporting OnLocation is misguided. It appears that they considered the main use of OnLocation is to capture video to a hard drive, and with camcorders capturing to flash memory this is no longer important.

However, OnLocation also has another possibly more important use, and that is to monitor the exposure of video during video capture.

In my case, I use OnLocation to capture live ballet performances with theatrical lighting so the ballets can be restaged years later. These performances can be as long as an hour, and I have to capture them without interruption. The lighting varies during the performance from dim overall lighting to dim with side lit dancers, to dim with follow spots, to very bright, to very bright with follow spots, to lighting varying in different parts of the stage, and every imaginable variation. To try to maximize the quality of the video, I have to adjust the aperture of my camcorder on the fly to avoid over exposure of bright regions and under exposure during dim lighting. I do this by watching the waveform graph in OnLocation and adjusting the aperture while also watching the dancers and panning and zooming. Without OnLocation, I would be flying blind regarding exposure.

What I had been hoping for was an upgrade of OnLocation to be able to handle HDMI video so camcorders without a 1394 output could benefit by the monitoring features.

So I will have to make do with the last supported version of OnLocation.

I agree. OL is a very handy programme for the huge number of videographers still using tape as it allows me to balance and get a clearer idea of the frame. If anything it should have been developed to work with DSLRs and other tapeless cameras. I appreciate I can continue using my CS5 or 5.5 version but that option won't be attractive for too long with no support or development.

Could the Adobe guys reconsider and bring back a developed version for CS6.5 please.

I have used OL because I can hook up my Z1 and use the laptop as a monitor and make some corrections using the scopes, etc, as well as using it as an HDD for the footage. Can these functions be transported to Prelude for instance?

Why is it that Adobe keeps switching up the applications to do a particular job? I mean there are some stable ones, Acrobat, Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, InDesign, Illustrator etc. but there are those, OnLocation, Soundbooth, Audition that Adobe cannot seem to commit to. why is that? I had just gotten used to Audition and then Soundbooth replaced it, just got used to it and now here we are back to Audition again...

Sure would be nice if you could just make up your minds.

By the way the buttons in the tool bar don't seem to work. Maybe it is just me, but I cant get any of them to work. Oh, hold on, Spell check did...

I agree with you 100%. I used an earlier verion of On Location before Adobe bought them out. Serious Magic's DV Rack! ! What a great company with some super virtual green screen sets and a flwless keyer. I use a lot of Adobe's products but am pissed off at some of their recent decisions.

I do a lot of live performances as you decsribed. I am using a Sony DSR 250 and 2 DSR 7U's for those events requiring multi-cam. Those cameras use DV-Cam tape and CF cards simultaneously. I shoot HD on everything. What I rely on is the zebra pattern to adjust aperture. I set it at 100IRE and just make sure that faces are never in that zone and just use personal judgement as to whether extreme white costumes can stand a little clipping. I don't even worry about bright lightssions.

I also need on location. I have been using it for some time to record my MASTER camera as we are frequently recoring long live events. The master camera covers tape or SD changes on the other cameras. DSLR's are still limited to (relatively) short duration due to overheating, so I would like DSLR support too.